Improv is for Experts

In all my years of coaching presentations, the most common concern I hear from professionals is actually not about the presentation at all.  It’s about the part when—either in the body of the presentation or immediately following—people in the audience or meeting get to ask questions. The presenter switches from prepared remarks into, well, UNprepared remarks. All of a sudden you’re in the land of extemporaneous speech. Improvisation.

Whether or not this is your biggest Achilles heel, almost everyone who has had to execute an important presentation or pitch, whether it be to three executives in a room or a crowd of hundreds, has faced this moment.  And no matter how fluent you are in the material, the angle, the goal, no matter how seasoned a presenter you may be, that moment can be daunting. It’s unpredictable, definitely, and also it can be difficult to maintain the same effortless (read: well-rehearsed) tone. (more…)

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Sales Engagement Platforms – What They Are & How They’re Critical To Sales

We know that sales enablement has been around for some time.  Sales Enablement is the systematic approach to increasing sales productivity, by supporting reps with the content, training and analytics they…

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Increasing Sales & Conversions At Each Step Of The Sales Process

Whether you are in sales or marketing, creating opportunities to improve conversions at each step of the funnel is vital to one’s productivity and success in generating more leads and ultimately more revenue.  Sophisticated marketers now use social media to create opportunities while more of the old-school salespeople leverage their tricks to ensure they stay in front of prospects and give themselves more opportunities to entice them with one’s product or service.

Increasing conversions at each stage of the funnel can have multiplier effects at each stage so creating more ways to improve conversions can have lasting effects on one’s pipeline of prospects.  At CustomShow, we’ve developed what we consider to be the standard sales process for most business-to-business professionals.  Here is our partial list of things you can do to give yourself more chances to succeed.

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